In adding to the existing Saarinen museum and library, we were confronted with both temporal and physical accumulations. Changing needs and growing collectives were accommodated via piece-meal retro-frits and appropriations of space within the confines of an historical shell. While much of the structure remained intact, the original design intent was lost behind drywall and book stacks. Our design restores Saarinen's vision for the library and gallery spaces while deploying a strategy to unite the old with over 60,000 square feet of new.
With a shift in technology from analog to digital, there is a corresponding shift from physical artifact to a field of collection, a tactic employed here in 3 dimensions and with a super-graphic quality that is both currently and very much in the spirit of the 1960s itself a technique stretched through time.
